Ladies through to Quarter-finals of EHL Trophy

OHC Ladies 1s  4-1  Watton

Scorers: Rachael Lammey x3, Becky Hibbert
MOTM: Becky Hibbert

On Sunday, OHC ladies 1s travelled to Watton in Norfolk for the 4th round of the EHL trophy.  After an early start and a long drive, Oxford made it to Watton and when the umpires arrived the game was able to start in earnest. The opposition started strongly on their home turf closing down Clare Shaw in the Oxford defence, and Phil Swindell had to make several important early saves to keep the score level.

Oxford then got going however, and Caitlin Bailey-Williams was able to transfer the ball across the pitch to get Hayley Sawyer and Harriet Wilkinson moving down the right of the pitch. One of these moves found motm Becky Hibbert who crossed the ball for Rachael Lammey to sweep the ball into the corner of the net. A near-identical second goal soon followed with Hibbert’s cross putting the Watton defence under pressure so Lammey could score again.

Oxford’s 3rd goal soon followed from the left, Claire Hooper intercepting a pass and laying it off in the D so Lammey could score her third. Oxford then held firm for the rest of the half to keep the score 3-0 at the break.

OHC started the second half brightly in pursuit of a 4th goal, and Katie Cox, Bev Cousins and Claire Hooper combined well down the left to find Lucy Eddowes up front. Despite this pressure, Watton also found the opportunity to pull a goal back by converting a shot on goal at the back post. However, this gave Oxford the momentum they needed to score their fourth from a penalty corner with Sawyer crossing the ball for Hibbert to convert.

This capped a great team performance and ensured Oxford’s progression to the quarter finals of the trophy competition, which will be played next Sunday (25th Feb) v. Broxbourne HC away.

Match report by Rachael Lammey